Trama

A character study of five young men at crucial turning points in their lives in a small town in Italy.

Fausto Moretti seduces his friend Moraldo Rubini's sister Sandra and is forced to marry her After their honeymoon, he takes a job selling religious objects in a small shop. Marriage doesn't change him; he still goes with his friends to look for women. He even tries to seduce his boss' wife and gets fired. Sandra forgives everything he does. He and his friends of similar temperament are content to be idle, chase girls, and leave the job-hunting and work to others. After Fausto has spent one more night away from home with a girl, Sandra can no longer forgive and runs off with their child, and Fausto and his friends search all over for them, fearing the worst.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Alberto, Fausto, Leopoldo, Moraldo, and Riccardo are young-adult friends, living in a provincial coastal Italian town. Most are still living at home, unemployed, spending their time together amusing themselves, which they sometimes find difficult in their boring little town. They always need to sponge money off their loved ones and are mostly aimless, although Leopoldo, the intellectual, writes--mostly plays--and Riccardo sings at every opportunity. The first one forced to at least start to grow up is Fausto the cad, who impregnates Moraldo's naive sister Sandra pregnant. Although he was going to abandon her and run off to Milan, he marries her when his father finds out about the pregnancy. Fausto and Sandra will find if the sheer act of being married and parents will make Fausto truly grow up, or if their example of being married will get any of their friends out of their inertia, most specifically by leaving town to strike out on their own.—Huggo

Pushing 30 but still living at home with their parents, selfish middle-class layabouts--chronic philanderer Fausto, lazy pipe-dreamer Alberto, aspiring playwright Leopoldo, amateur tenor Riccardo, and melancholic dandy Moraldo--are adrift in Rimini, their seaside hometown on the Adriatic coast. Whiling away the time in pursuit of ephemeral enjoyment, more than anything in the world, the immature quintet yearns for freedom without breaking a sweat, insisting on nursing puerile ambitions. Then, morally-bankrupt Fausto impregnates Sandra Rubini, the beautiful Miss Mermaid, 1953; unready to become a husband and father, he's forced into an unglamorous shotgun wedding. But bad habits are hard to break, and maturity can come at a high price. Will the arrogant, hollow Vitelloni ever break free from their trivial lifestyles? Will they finally manage to fulfill their dreams?—Nick Riganas

In a small seaside town in Italy, Moraldo Rubini, Alberto, Fausto Moretti, Leopoldo Vannucci and Riccardo form a group of idle friends that spend their time together doing nothing but drinking, flirting, and going to parties. When Fausto's girlfriend Sandra Rubini gets pregnant, his father pressures him to marry her. However, the irresponsible Fausto remains unfaithful to Sandra, cheating on her with many women and almost leading his family to a tragedy.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

We are introduced to an outdoor celebration to crown Miss Mermaid of 1953 in the small Italian town Rimini. The winner is the lovely Sandra Rubini (Leonora Ruffo) whose brother Moraldo (Franco Interlenghi) and mother stand by admiring her popularity. As a rain storm surprises the crowd and pushes them indoors we are slowly introduced to the men in the film that we will follow. Fausto (Franco Fabrizi) runs home in the rain and begins packing his bags when he discovers that his girlfriend Sandra, Miss Mermaid, is pregnant when she collapses at the party. Fausto is walking out the door only to be confronted by good friend Moraldo, who reasons that his sister needs a husband. With his father adding to the argument, Fausto decides to marry Sandra albeit apprehensively. One of the other young men Leopoldo (Leopoldo Trieste) goes home to write on one of his hackneyed plays but ends up spending more time looking at cracks in the ceiling and flirting with the maid in the next apartment while talking of one day staging his creative works. Then there is Alberto (Alberto Sordi) the animated goof of the group who still lives at home with his mother and attractive sister Olga (Claude Farell) who is clandestinely dating a married man who Alberto disapproves of. The five friends spend their days and nights attempting to create a good time for themselves and transcend their hum drum small-town existence. As we follow the friends we see them involved in different rites of passage as when Fausto is compelled to try to make time with every beautiful woman he meets and how this affects his marriage. We see Leopoldo meet up with an older renowned actor Sergio Natali (Achille Majeroni) who spends time asking the young writer to read his material for him only to discover that the incipient relationship is fraught with personal compromises. Alberto is heart broken and left behind to console his mother when his sister runs off the married man she has been seeing. As the high profiles of the five friends come into view and we see them go through many different escapades we see the effect that time and understanding has on each of them. Moraldo, the most thoughtful of the group spends time alone walking the streets thinking, where he befriends a young working boy who offers one of the most poignant farewells in film.